Sisterhood and Brotherhood
by sesshomarusshikonmiko
Summary: Alyara and Swirya have always wanted to go to Pandora. They finally get the chance too, along with their closest friends, Jake and Tom Sully. The four of them end up on Pandora and a series of strange events happen. Shout-out to 'I Was Divided By Zero! Thanks for the amazing cover photo! You rock!
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

LOVELY CREATURES

* * *

It first happens when they were six.

Alyara and Swirya Ninat'ite had just finished coloring in their _First Grade Coloring Book_. Alyara's was filled with Picasso like drawings of trees and _make-believe_ animals. One that truly stuck out was one of a slender, athletic blue person. Then there was an Elmer's-glued, tissue-papered collage of her dreams of the blue people who lived inside her head, and the answers to some of the most pointless questions she'd ever read.

Swirya was filled with words as her drawings. Graffiti words drawn all over her book, she didn't even worry about the questions. She had cut out paper words and glued them in all over her college. _NA'VI_ and _EYWA_ showed all over her paper as she thought back to the bizarre dreams she had had. Their thirty-five year old teacher, Mr. Brunner stated down at the girls papers. He chuckled at the creativity they were showing.

Their classmates and them sat in a semicircle on the floor in the reading area. "Austin, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Mr. Brunner asked after all the other questions had been answered. "A police officer!" he yelled happily. "Cassandra?" "Uh...a nurse," Cassandra Hunter whispered shyly. Mr. Brunner went through the rest of the class. Fire fighters. Cooks. Basketball players.

Finally, it was the twins turn.

"Alyara, Swirya! What do you want to be when you grow up?" Mr. Brunner asked, staring at the two twins intensely. They said nothing. "Actress?" Alyara shook her head. "Doctor?" "Nuh, uh," Swirya said. "Vet?" "Yuck!" they both squealed. "Then what?" He asked, curious. They thought for a secong before saying, "We want to be..." "Yes?" "We want to be...a Na'vi!" They shouted, to the happy shock and amazement of Mr. Brunner and their classmates. For a few moments they thought he started to laugh; maybe he really did. The children sittting next to them inched away.

They spent most of their childhood watching others inch away.

* * *

They were conceived on their father's water bed, or in a room of the Buckingham palace, depends on which parent is telling the story. They were soul mates that couldn't bare to part with the seventies: true love mixed with hard drugs, some strawberry incense, and the music of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. A spikey choker, halter-topped, cutoff leather-jeaned, leather-booted chick, intertwined with a long-haired, shaven, Johnny Dep-spectacled, olive toned, leather-vested, cowboy-booted dude. The girls feel guilty for being even more eccentric than their parents.

Alyara's black hair, and dangerous, glittering blue eyes along with her ghastly pale skin made her stand out, giving her the nickname 'Vamp Girl' in grade school. While Swirya silvery white hair, and bright, iridescent yellow eyes along with her equally pale skin labeled her 'White Out' in elementary, grade, and high school.

VaToni and Nuka Ninat'ite became more responsible after the girls arrival into the world and into their lives_or should I say they became less "glassy-eyed". They sold their Volkswagen shroom can that they were living in and actually started renting property. Their hippie apartment was decorated with 3-D glow-in-the-dark Black Sabbath posters and neon yellow lava lamps that Alyara wouldn't mind starting at all day. It was one of the greatest times of the girl's life. The four of them laughed and played Chutes and Ladders, and squeezed gushers between their teeth, stayed up late, watching scientific documentaries, most about the AVTR program going on a planet named Pandora.

At the time, they lived in Sumter, Oregon. Then one day, their father got a phone call from some old friend's, Miranda and James T. Sully. They chatted animatedly and laughed over the phone with each other. Then Sam said that they all should come down under, for a visit. Nuka grinned and agreed and in two months, they flew down to New South Wales.

* * *

"Hello, old friend!" grinned James as he hugged his friend. Miranda squealed as she ran over and gave VaToni a big hug as they jumped up and down. All Alyara and Swirya did was stare. "James," started Nuka, "I have two very important girls I would like you to meet!" Nuka walked over to Alyara and introduced her first. "This is my oldest daughter, Alyara." Alyara grinned broadly before saying, "Hello!" loudly. James grinned at her as he introduced himself. "And this," ended Nuka, "is my youngest daughter, Swirya." Unlike her sister, Swirya was rather shy as she peeked through her long bangs and gave a quiet, 'Hi.' James smiled gently before giving her his own quiet hello.

"Well, you're not the only one with kids, Nuka!" James shifted as he yelled, "Tomas! Jacob! Come here! There's some people I'd like you to meet!" Two, twin boys with thick, coarse brown hair and shining brown eyes. Tomas and Jacob stared at the girls, and the girls stared a Tomas and Jacob. "Well," whispered their VaToni loudly, "go say hi!" She gave the girls a small shove towards Jacob and Tomas. They looked up at Jacob and Tomas before Swirya said, "Hi, my name's Swirya, and this is Alyara." Jacob scrunched up his nose before asking, "What kind of names are those?" Alyara narrowed her eyes before answering with, "Na'vi names." Tom's eyes widened with jealousy and envy. "Lucky!" breathed Tom. Jacob however, just shrugged his shoulder's before walking towards his father.

"Sorry about Jake. He can be such a meanie sometimes!" grumbled Tom good heartedly. "Come on kids! We're going to the house!" bellowed Nuka. Swirya walked in sync with each other as they made their way towards the Sully's navy blue mini van. And from then on out, they stayed with the Sully's for the next sixteen years.

* * *

_16 years later_

"Well, that's certainly unexpected," Tom Sully said over the comlink to the head of the Amnio team, "although I suppose it says something about the genetics of twins, doesn't it? I wonder..." He paused, deep in thought for a moment.

"Yes, yes, it's absolutely fascinating," the Amnio head interrupted quickly, "but what are we supposed to do with the extra embryo's? I hesitate to just destroy them, but it isn't as though you and Swirya can be in two bodies at once, and an avatar without a driver is useless. I suppose we could keep them as a couple of spares for you but the implications of you _and_ Swirya needing a spare are..."

"No, no," Tom shook his head, "I don't think we're going to need a spare, but I think we might just have a use for them. I know we leave in less than a week, but I'll get back to you on the issue by the day after tomorrow at the latest, just keep them growing until you hear back."

"Alright," the man nodded, "I guess it doesn't really make much of a difference at this point anyway, neither one of them is any bigger than a baby rat."

"Right," Tom laughed. "I'll be in touch."

With that he hung up, sitting down in a nearby chair. He frowned to himself as he debated how to break his idea to his Swirya. But that wasn't his biggest problem. Jake and Alyara was his biggest problem. He wanted to talk to them before he approached his superiors. He knew he'd be able to convince them, and he was pretty sure he'd be able to convince Jake and Alyara, but ever since Jake's confinement to a wheelchair, and Alyara's diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome, they'd been grumpy. Tom got it, he really did, but he was hoping the opportunity to be a part of such an exciting project, would be tempting enough to break through the grumps to the crazy, adventure-loving twin and bestfriend Tom had grown up with.

"Who was that?" Swirya commented, wearing only a cammi and some plaid shorts. She dried her hair into stringy white waves before brushing it out. Her big yellow eyes stared deeply into his eyes. He shied away from the intense look of yellow before answering. "The Amnio head. They ended up making two of me _and_ two of you, isn't that crazy? Anyway, I've got the idea of inviting Jake and 'Yara with us, seeing as their our twins signifying the similarities in brain activity, 'cept I don't know if they'd be willing to go?" Swirya had a thoughtful look on her face before saying, "Why don't you ask them?"

* * *

Jake Sully groaned and pulled the pillow over his head. The phone was still ringing and he knew it had to either be Tom or Swirya. Only his twin and bestfriend would keep calling after the fifth time he hadn't picked up. "Pick...up the damn phone, Sully. It ain't...mine." grunted a rough feminine voice from the other side of him. He peeked over at Alyara, her long black hair sprawled out behind her, framing her porcelain face and rosy red lips. He groaned again and rolled over, throwing the pillow at the button for the speakerphone and vidlink. "What?" he snapped shortly.

"You're looking happy this evening," Tom grinned at him across the vid, "just waking up, are we?"

"_We_..." Jake growled, "were attempting to kill a headache, something that the phone ringing constantly for twenty minutes has not helped." They both went silent as they heard Alyara growl loudly before sitting up and throwing her legs over the edge. She shot a scathing look at Tom and Jake before she stood up and pulled her shirt over her head, showing off her smooth pale back as she walked towards her side of the closet. Tom blanched at her with reddened cheeks, while Jake just rolled his eyes and smirked.

"Uh...yeah...well maybe this'll make it better. How'd you like to have a new set of legs?" Tom couldn't keep the grin off his face.

"What's the catch?" Jake asked suspiciously. There had to be a catch, he knew that look on Tom's face all too well.

"You'll have to wait a few years, and they're gonna be blue with strips," Tom shrugged.

Jake blinked. Alyara laughed. "Blue?" "Yeah, blue," Tom nodded. "The avatar they're growing for me decided to do the twin thing, so I figured why the hell not?" "Wait. You want me to come with you, go into cryo and bum around on some moon out in the middle of nowhere?! I'm not some science geek, Tom, what the hell'm I supposed to do there, huh? Sit on my scrawny pale blue ass and count passing animals or some shit like that?"

"Just because only scientists have been sent so far, it doesn't mean you won't be useful. We could definitely use a bodyguard who doesn't have to be out there in an exopack, and besides that, from all I've read and all I've been told, the Na'vi are a hunter/warrior culture. They'd probably respect you way more than me, just 'cause you're trained in combat." "Oh great, so you want a trained monkey," Jake rolled his eyes as Alyara's giggles died down, "how about you give me just one actual, good reason I should go along with this insane idea of yours."

"_Because you don't have anything better to do,_" Tom said, using the private language that he, Jake, Alyara, and Swirya made up when they were kids, "_and because I want you there._""Fine, fine," Jake sighed, "_you win._" He shook his head. "Alyara, that goes for you too!," said Tom smirking happily. "Huh? What does any of this have to do with me?" She questioned suspiciously. "They made two for Swirya as well! You can go out there too!" Alyara smiled brightly and happily. "Really?!" she grinned. Jake raised a brow while smiling softly as Alyara jumped around the room happily. By this time she had on a white sports bra and some basketball shorts.

"If you can talk your superiors into it, we'll come with you. You're right, it's not like I have anything better to do. And she probably doesn't have anything better to do either!" laughed Jake as he watched his other bestfriend bounce around the room like a chicken with her head cut off.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1: We're Here and Badmouthing

Waking up out of the stasis of cryo was...disorienting. Even though he'd known it, Tom was still surprised by it. Once his pod opened he stretched, feeling all the vertebrae down his back pop into place. He looked around and caught sight of Swirya and grinned. "How'd you sleep?" he asked.

"Feels like I didn't sleep at all," Swirya grinned tiredly, "it's pretty abnormal. I like it."

"Oh, don't you just love using big words!" Tom pulled himself out of his pod,"I know, go to sleep and wake up five years later." He grinned. "You ready for this?"

"Ready as ever! Question is, are _you_ ready for this?!" Swirya nodded, grinning as she pushed out into the weightlessness of the orbiting transport ship, Valkyire Shuttle, stretching her long, pale legs. "I'm so gonna be faster than you."

"You think so hmm? How much you wanna bet on that?" Tom grinned.

"Whatever your willing to pay," Swirya grinned back.

Tom shook his head. "You can try, chick, you can try."

"Yo'" Swirya turned to look at her disgruntled big sister. A wave of black hair flew in Alyara's face as she growled, frustrated. "Anybody got a hair tie?" Swirya laughed lightly as she floated towards her sister. "Here, you big baby!" She giggled. Alyara narrowed her eyes before attaching herself to Swirya's back. She put the hair tie on her wrist, before tickling her twin lightly. Swirya began giggling insanely as Alyara's small and nimble fingers flew over her sides.

"What the hell're you guys doing?!" laughed Jake as pushed himself out of the cyro. Alyara looked at him before diverting her eyes to the cleft on his chin. "She called me a big baby!" pouted Alyara as she paused her tickling antics. Jake shook his head as he floated towards them, moving his arms fluidly to quicken the process. Alyara continued with her antics for a few more minutes before she let go as got her things to leave.

* * *

Swirya almost couldn't pull her eyes away from her first view of the jungles of Pandora. To look at all the troops sharing the transport with her sister and herself. It looked almost like the images she'd seen on a documentary of the jungles of Southern Africa and the Amazon in the mid-twentieth century. When she did finally look over at Alyara, she smiled softly. Alyara's eyes were filled with wonder and amazement. Her mouth formed a large 'o' shape as her eyes tried to take in every sight there was to see. She looked to see Tom, but saw Jake instead. She grinned at his attempt to be hard and cold. Jake was trying to act tough around all the other mercenaries, but Swirya could see the amazement hiding behind her bestfriend's eyes. Tom was looking through the window, completely engrossed with the Pandorian jungles, his eyes wide with glee and wonder. He looked a lot like herself.

Alyara watched the trees fly by beneath her and caught sight of a flock of...were they birds? No, that couldn't be right, or at least not given the relative size compared to the trees. Those must be...she searched his memory for the Na'vi word..._ikran_, mountain banshees, looking like nothing so much as the way he imagined a Pterodactyl flock must have looked millions of years ago on earth. _Thank you Swirya for all the lessons on Pandora! _she grinned in her head. She rubbed her eyes. She could have sworn the profile of the _ikran_ in the back of the flock looked wrong somehow...Like someone was sitting on it! "Hey, Tom?! Is somebody...riding that _ikran?!" _Tom looked at her puzzled before he looked out his window. Tom grinned before nodding. Alyara's grin widened even more. "It would be amazing to ride one of those. To be so high up, looking down on the waters and the jungles. That would be so cool." Jake spoke beside her.

Alyara looked at him, her eyes softening even more as he looked out longingly at the flying beast. It was something he had always wanted to do. Something _they_ had always wanted to do, he and Alyara. Fly something without having specific precautions to worry about. To just fly and feel the wind hugging their forms, pushing them to go faster and faster. "Yeah. That would be...really nice." smiled Alyara softly as she gave him a one-armed hug, rubbing his arm soothingly. He gave her a quick smile before going back into his emotionless mask of nothing.

The transport banked again, and the human base of Hell's Gate came into view. In contrast to the forest around it, the sight of the massive strip-mine made Swirya almost sick. She schooled her features, though, not wanting to let on. The only way she'd keep on the right side of the RDA and their hired dogs was not to comment on the fucking mess they were making of something that was otherwise as close as she'd ever seen to an "Eden". She turned away from the window again, watching Alyara and Jake instead as they landed.

* * *

After orienting theirselves on base, and without waiting for Jake and Alyara, who had some kind of military _thing_ to go to, Tom and Swirya wandered toward the science wing, hoping to get a look at their now fully grown avatar's. The link room was a swarm of activity, techs running here and there doing highly technical things, lights flashing over a few link units and various other activity, so at first nobody noticed their arrival. Tom leaned against the wall just inside the door and just watched for a little bit, taking it all in. Soon, he would be a part of all this. He, Jake, Alyara, Swirya, and Norm. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Norm since he woke up. He vaguely wondered where the tall, gangly man was, but he figured Norm was probably just getting accustomed to the place the same way he was.

Suddenly the lights over one of the link units started flashing quicker and someone screamed "incoming" just as the lid began to rise. Tom and Swirya was surprised to realize they recognized the young woman who rubbed her eyes and stretched before hauling herself out of the unit and to her feet. Well, Swirya didn't know why she was surprised, after all, she'd known a few of those who were ahead of her in the AVTR program, so why should she not know her?

She grinned as he watched her slightly awkward stumbling steps in their direction. They didn't think she'd seen them, they weren't that naïve, they knew full well the reason she was heading their was because they were next to the door out of there, but they did wonder if she'd notice them as she walked by.

Nope. Tom chuckled ruefully as she walked by him, seeming almost to be in a trance. Clearly she was exhausted; maybe he should just leave her be. But no, he shook his head, that wouldn't be any fun at all. Finding his way around would also be easier, he rationalized, with a guide to show him where everything was. He ducked back out the door with Swirya in tow and headed after her.

"Rachel?" he called. "Rachel Staton! Wait up!" Despite how tired she looked, she was clearly in a hurry, and her long strides carried her quickly down the hallway, making it necessary for him and Swirya to jog after her to catch up. Swirya placed a hand on her shoulder. "Rachel," she said, "slow down! What's the hurry!"

"Shut up Swirya," she shook her head, "I just finished eating dinner and now I'm starving and I have to eat again, it's a damn nuisance..." she trailed off as she turned to stare at her. "Wait...Swirya? Swirya Ninat'ite? Tom Sully? What are you guys doing here?"

"Just got in on the Venture Star," Tom grinned, "We could do with a little dinner ourselves-""Only we're not sure just where the cafeteria is. You wouldn't mind showing us, would you?" Swirya gave her her best "puppy dog" look.

She rolled her eyes at her. "Sure, okay, fine," she slipped her shoulder out from under her hand, "but only because I was heading there anyway."

"Awesome," Swirya said as they grinned, "lead on, then."

* * *

At first, Swirya found Cathy very elusive in answering any of their questions, but from watching her body language and the way she kept glancing around at the soldiers filling the cafeteria (or, she supposed, given the dominance over the area of said soldiers, maybe she should be calling it the "mess". Jake and 'Yara always got so annoyed with them when they used the wrong words for "soldier things" like that) she quickly caught on that she didn't want to discuss anything to do with the Na'vi or her avatar with such an audience, so instead she shot Tom a look and shifted the subject, bringing her up to date with how things had gone on earth since she'd left and before she had, and finding out from her how other mutual friends were faring here on Pandora since her arrival.

They were deep in discussion on the topic of Max and whether he was romantically interested in one of the female techs ("You've got to be kidding me? I always thought he was gay!" Tom teased) when Swirya felt a pair of hands land heavily on his shoulders.

"Cute," said a sarcastic female voice, "really cute, but I need to have a little talk with you two. Tom Sully and Swirya Ninat'ite, I presume?"

Swirya felt a chill go through her at the anger she could feel barely restrained in the woman's tone. "Yeah, that's us," she turned to see who was talking to her, "what did we do? We just got here, so it can't have anythd too big." Once she was fully turned around she realized that it was Dr. Grace Augustine, and the look on her face only accentuated her earlier impression from her tone of voice.

"What kind of operation do you think we're running here?" she said witheringly, "a family picnic? You figured you could just sweet-talk your way into getting your useless jarhead brother and useless unstable sister here just because you felt sorry for them cause his legs don't work and she has Asperger's Syndrome?"

Swirya was all set to be nullifying, but that last quip was one step too far. She stood up from her seat and turned to face her properly. "I was going to explain myself to you," she said angrily, "but clearly you don't want to hear our reasoning. No, we don't think this is a fucking family picnic, and we have a very good reason for wanting _two_ trained warriors in avatar bodies as a part of the diplomatic mission _we_ are supposed to be leading. Or did you think we're useless too?" She turned away to look at Rachel and Tom with an apologetic smile, "I'll leave you to finish your dinner," she said, "I've lost my appetite, sorry."

And with that she strode quickly away, heading for her room, but instead she ran into her twin, Alyara, except she wasn't looking at her, she was looking at Dr. Augustine.

Alyara Ninat'ite was a fairly smart scientist. She fought in Venezuela, as an even better warrior. Then as she was inspected and examined at a small clinic camped out for wounded soilders, she found out she had Asperger's Syndrome. It explained a lot things in Alyara's life. Why she didn't pick up on social cues as a child. Why she doesn't like changes in her routine. Why she appeared to lack empathy. It was all because of Asperger's. Why she wasn't able to recognize subtle changes in someone's speech, tone, pitch, or accent. Why, half the time, she didn't get jokes people told her. Why she had an advanced speech as a child. Why she avoided eye contact with other's. Why she had tendencies to stare at everything but a person's eyes. Why she was super sensitive to loud noises and extremely bright lights. Why she didn't really eat a lot of junk food because of the strong tastes of salt and uncomfortable food textures. Why she was twelve before she learned how to catch a ball correctly, or ride a bike. Why her handwriting was so shitty. It was all because of Asperger's.

At a very young age, Alyara learned that crying wouldn't solve anything. That she shouldn't cry over the stupid and ignorant shit that the kids on the playground said to her. That she shouldn't feel sorry for herself because she wasn't able to act like the other children, or feel the way they felt. She learned that she had to be strong, not only for her family, but for herself as well. She stood up for Swirya and herself. She faced the harsh faced the harsh realities of life at a really young age, and she did it alone. And she survived.

So when this _bitch_ accuses her little sister of bullshit she knows isn't true, her temper...well...get's a bit out of hand. "_You know,_" drawls Alyara in Na'vi, surprising both Grace and Rachel, "_it isn't exactly kind to go talk to the people that you don't really have the problem with, especially if you don't really know about the people your complaining about._" Alyara begins to slowly walk towards Grace. Her eyes were leveled and cooled out as she stared coldly at Grace, a sneer forming on her lips. Grace stood her ground as she looked up at Alyara's towering 6"0 stature, fear only making small evidence in her eyes.

Alyara leaned down to face Grace. Her eyes narrowed even more as she let her anger show through her eyes. "If I ever," growled Alyara lowly, "catch you doing shit like this again, not even your damn posse of science geeks will be able to save you. Understand?" Grace's mouth formed to make a nasty retaliation, but she thought better of it, and agreed with just nodding. Alyara smirked triumphantly as she turned around to walk towards her bunker, her sister trailing behind her, a grin adorned on her face.


End file.
